Police in South Derbyshire have explained why it is difficult to deal with people who park on pavements.

It is a frequent problem in Etwall and Hilton.

At a meeting of South Derbyshire District Council’s area forum in Sutton-on-the-Hill, officers said that they were as frustrated as residents with the ongoing situation, and how current legislation is leaving them hamstrung.

Obstructive parking is typically when a vehicle is left parked half on the pavement, restricting access for pedestrians, wheelchair users and those pushing prams.

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PC Joe Pilgrim said that the topic was a “grey area” for legislation, saying that is difficult to prove what is obstructive without an actual incident.

For example, he said: “Residents will say that the road can be obstructed by people parking on both sides, and that emergency services won’t be able to get through. But unless that has actually happened, and emergency services have been stuck, then there isn’t really much we can do about it.”

District council community safety manager, Chris Smith, said that the parked vehicle in question must be simultaneously unreasonable, persistent, and causing a nuisance.

PC Pilgrim said that to prove that someone is a persistent nuisance parker would require weeks of dedicated work and associated photo evidence.

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He said: “A neighbour or someone in the area would have to be taking photos for several weeks and sending them to us, so that we have all the intel we need, but we can’t spend officer time on each of these ourselves.”

Meanwhile, district councillor Andy Billings said that more needs to be done to enforce proper parking at Etwall Leisure Centre.

He said: “Ticketing by the police has been making a difference, but something needs to be done to educate football clubs about parking in the overflow car park.

“When I go to drop off my son it is me and one other car parked in there, so that needs enforcing.”

PC Pilgrim said that six tickets had been put on cars at the leisure centre yesterday alone, due to being parked on a solid white line.

He said: “I’m personally not a fan of that approach, but it is a thing that connects to people, once it starts impacting on their licence and there is a fine.

“It is not a safe place to park, but there are very few things in terms of parking offences that we can really act on.”